THE LITTLE BOY WHO WAS BORN KIDNAPPED

Clara Rojas, a lawyer from Bogotá who was the vice-presidential candidate alongside presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, was kidnapped by FARC-EP guerrillas on the road to San Vicente del Caguán on February 23, 2002.

The first proof of life of the candidate was revealed in July 2002 when the FARC-EP sent a video in which she appeared sitting alongside Betancourt.

A second video was made public in August 2003, where Rojas sent a message to her mother. In April 2006, journalist Jorge Enrique Botero revealed that the leader had a child as a result of a consensual relationship with a member of FARC-EP.

Almost a year later, new details of the case were revealed through police officer John Frank Pinchao, who was in captivity with Rojas and Betancourt, escaped, and was rescued after fleeing for 17 days through the jungle. He brought the news that the child was named Emmanuel.

Following these revelations, the child's grandmother launched a campaign for his release. However, Manuel Marulanda Vélez "Tirofijo," founder of the FARC-EP, claimed that the child also belonged to the group.

In December 2007, the FARC-EP announced that they would unilaterally release Clara Rojas, her son Emmanuel, and Consuelo González; according to the guerrilla group, this release would be a gesture of goodwill toward President Hugo Chávez. It was then that the Venezuelan president initiated the plan for the return of the three hostages, initially calling it "Operation Transparency" and later "Operation Emmanuel."

On December 31, 2007, the FARC-EP announced that the release of the three hostages was "impossible" momentarily due to "intense military operations" in the area. The statement was read on television by President Hugo Chávez. In response, in a speech given by President Álvaro Uribe, the government denounced that the FARC-EP was not telling the truth and that the delay was due to them not having Clara Rojas's son in their possession. According to the president, Emmanuel had been abandoned in San José del Guaviare, where the Colombian Family Welfare Institute (original acronym ICBF) admitted him because he showed signs of torture, abuse, and malnutrition.

José Crisanto López, the peasant who took care of Emmanuel by order of the FARC-EP, later recounted that on January 12, 2005, a couple of guerrillas arrived in a canoe with a six-month-old baby in their arms. He had a terrible bite on his face and a fractured arm; the insurgents told him that the child had had an accident, in addition to the infection caused by a mosquito, and they needed the quack to examine him. They left the child with the promise of picking him up soon, but they never returned, and the child, whom they called Pegui, stayed with them.

In July 2005, they took the child to San José del Guaviare for doctors to see his broken arm; but during the consultation, the doctors suspected that the child was mistreated, due to the unhealed fracture, the infection on his face, two suffered malaria, and chronic malnutrition, so they decided to hand him over to the Colombian Family Welfare Institute (ICBF).

In January 2008, blood samples were taken from Clara Rojas's mother and brother to determine if the child at the Colombian Family Welfare Institute (ICBF), under the name Juan David Gómez Tapiero, was Emmanuel. The results were known on January 4, 2008, confirming the child's identity.

On January 10, 2008, after six years of being held captive in the jungle, Clara Rojas was released, and days later, the long-awaited reunion with her son took place: "I feel like the happiest woman in the world and very proud of my baby Emmanuel. He's divine, has a beautiful gaze," she said, visibly moved.